Feykin
Feykin are races that are, one way or another, tied to the fey, the spiritual inhabitants of the Ethereal Plane. Due to the otherworldly nature of these races, they are very rare and are more often than not seen as myths. Gnomes Gnomes are the result of long generations of hobbits living where the barrier between the Material Plane and Ethereal Plane is thin. Individuals might have become lost and wandered through a rift to the Spirit Realm, others might have been kidnapped by mischievous or malicious fey, and there are tales of whole settlements being built near rifts and being lost entirely. Those who lived long enough in this strange state of flux inevitably had children, and eventually a separate species was born. The gnomes are not truly fey; they are paradoxically mortals of the Spirit Realm, attuned and adapted to the chaotic nature of the plane. They are able to live, grow and die there without experiencing the issues that other living races encounter, and they can live just as fully on the Material Plane, unlike the fey. Their settlements tend to be situated where the space between the two planes is smallest, so they drift in and out of the two planes, truly belonging to neither. There is a gnomish village called Aberstwyth in northern Ursialla. Changelings Changelings are the result of a fey being born in the Material Plane. It is extremely rare, but since fey birth is less a physiological occurrence and more of a spontaneous event, there is little warning and not much the "parent" can do to prevent it; it just means that a child to a fey manifested while the fey was on the wrong plane. When it does happen, the baby is born with a greater affinity for Materia than Etheria. Fey are unable to properly survive in the Material Plane, much as mortals can not survive long in the Spirit Realm, but a newborn fey exposed on birth to the Material Plane seems to adapt immediately, and in doing so, can no longer tolerate returning to the Spirit Realm. Given this situation, the fey parent, rather then abandoning the newborn, will instead conscript mortal parents to raise the child; they will steal away a mortal baby and replace it with their own, in the hopes that it will grow up and eventually return to Etheria with a strong enough spirit to become a true fey again. These misplaced fey children, for reasons unclear, tend to possess one of several sets of similar physical characteristics. They are grouped according to their unique, chaotic powers. Shifting Changelings Shifting changelings possess the power to shape their bodies at will, thought to be a manifestation of the untempered spirit of Etheria made mortal. They can assume the guise of any humanoid creature, though without great specificity; it is easily mistaken for the Alter Self spell, as it functions almost identically, albeit without the usual motions of spellcasting or the time limit. Newborn shifting changelings seem to be able to copy a human baby presented to them instinctively, and they appear to not be able to willfully change until later in their childhood; a defensive mechanism to ensure that the unwitting human foster parents do not become suspect. Some shifting changelings spend their whole lives in disguise. Since their shifting is biologically based instead of purely magic, it has a few odd intricacies: they cannot alter any tissue that has sustained significant physical wounding (including piercings), and any tattoos that they receive are lost upon shifting for the first time. They also have the ability to become pregnant while in a female form, but once they have conceived, they lose the ability to shift until after they have birthed and weaned the child. The child will not be a changeling, and will have the species and appearance of the shifted form that was assumed at the time of conception; it is postulated that certain sorcerers have their powers rooted in a changeling ancestor. In their true forms, their otherworldly nature is readily apparent: their bodies are humanoid, but they would never be mistaken for human. Shifting changelings are completely monochrome: their skin is white or greyish, and their hair and irises are always either white or black. They possess no gender: their features and body shape reflect this, appearing neither male nor female by human standards, and they lack reproductive genitalia as well as other vestiges of mortal birth, such as belly buttons. Beyond this, they have the same variation that other humanoids display, having the usual human distributions of height and symmetry. Most shifting changelings are lean, as they have almost unnaturally high metabolisms, a possible side effect of their shifting powers. Elemental Changelings Elemental changelings have the power of the elements of fire, water, earth and air flowing through their veins. As children, they are indistinguishable from humans. As they reach puberty however, they invariably develop into slightly taller, slimmer and more muscularly built adults than the average population. However, there can be no mistaking these changelings for normal mortals: as they reach adulthood, their powers begin to manifest as the ability to channel the very elements, drastically altering their appearance. When channeling fire, ice, acid or electricity, their skin, eye and hair colours shift dramatically to match the element, depending on the strength of their focus. These vibrant colours fade slightly when the powers are not in use, but elemental changelings never again show mundane colouration. Like all changelings, elemental changelings are infertile, though they do possess the appearance of gender. Category:Race